Car Trip
by Sherlock River Hekate
Summary: Emily gets a call from Midtown School of Science and Technology just before she was supposed to drive out to deliver some things for Tony. And Peter finds out a bit more about Emily along the way.


Emily was sat in the library of the New York sanctum. The room was by far her favourite, to the point that she had claimed not only a chair, but also a desk, as her own. Stephen was at Kamar Taj training new sorcerers and Wong was, well she wasn't entirely sure, but he had walked past the doorway muttering to himself earlier so he was in the sanctum somewhere.  
A buzzing sound came from the coffee table beside Emily's chair, startling her out of the segment on sleeping charms. She flicked her eyes to the clock on the wall. There was still an hour before she was expected at SI to pick up some reagents and equipment for transport, so it wasn't her alarm going off. Carefully marking her page, she closes the book and picks up her phone. An unknown number, and not the right prefix for a SI landline. In fact, that number looked like a New York number, and it was quite similar to that of the sanctum. So it was an older number, from a building nearby. Emily couldn't think of any person that wold have her number and not bein her contacts, but she answered the phone anyway.  
"Hello, this is Emily."  
"Hello, Emily Strange, is it?"  
She rolled her eyes but confirmed. Strange wasn't technically her last name, but for anything other than legal documents she used it. It was much easier to protect her own family that way.  
"This is Midtown School of Science and Technology." Emily's eyes widened. "We contacted May Parker and Tony Stark. Both were unable to come to the school, but they agreed that you could come in their place."  
"Yes, I can do that."  
While her voice was calm, Emily's thoughts were wildly trying to sort through the information. Something had obviously happened to Peter, and it had to be bad if they were sending him home at just before midday.  
Emily hung up the phone, grabbed a couple of rolls and her iced coffee, then portalled to the school. Well, a side street near the school.

She strode into the front office, pausing only when she reached the receptionist.  
"I'm Emily. I'm here to pick up Peter Parker."  
The lady looked at her, checked something and then stood.  
"I'll get you to come this way. Principal Morita would like to have a word with you."  
Emily walked with the receptionist through a door and was greeted by the principal. Also in the room was another adult, Peter and another student.  
"Ms Strange," Morita addressed her, gesturing to a seat beside Peter. As Emily sat down, Peter looked at her quizzically and she quickly shrugged a shoulder. From the quick look she got at the boy before he turned back to face the principal. She could already see a bruise forming around one eye and what was possibly blood around his nose.  
"What's going on?" Emily asked as she turned to look at the other boy. Aside from what looked like bruises on his knuckles, she could see nothing wrong.  
"That brat pushed my son," the man finally spoke up.  
Morita held up a hand and silenced him.  
"Both Mr Parker and Mr McKeever have been brought to my office for fighting."  
"This Parker kid pushed my boy to the ground!" McKeever senior exclaimed.  
"I didn't do nothing. It was all him," the young McKeever muttered mulishly. Emily just managed to suppress a smirk at the double negative. Wasn't this supposed to be a smart school?  
She turned to Peter.  
"Tell me your version of events."  
Peter looked up at her slowly.  
"Brian was making fun of Ned after gym. He was backing him against the locker. I stepped between them and then stepped forward to try and make Brian take a step back. He stumbled and when he stood back up, he punched me. "  
"My boy doesn't stumble. Your kid pushed him over. He probably got his friend to punch him up a bit to fill out the story."  
This time Emily did roll her eyes.  
"Mr McKeever, your son has bruised knuckles." She pointed out.  
Then she looked back at Principal Morita. "You have cameras around the school, right?"  
He nodded.  
"Any around the gym and boy's locker room?"  
"It happened IN the locker room," Peter mumbled dejectedly.  
Morita sighed. "We don't make it common knowledge, but there is an encrypted feed of the locker rooms BECAUSE of past incidents like this."  
He pulled up the footage and turned the screen so that everyone in the room could see the footage. Much to Emily's relief and expectations, it showed the incident exactly how Peter described it. Only, now she knew why there was a black eye and a bloody nose. As Brian stumbled his arm went out to right himself and smacked Peter in the nose. But she thought he could be forgiven for not mentioning that, it was an accident after all.  
Morita turned the screen back around and cleared his throat.  
"Now that we know what happened, I can take the appropriate actions." He paused for a moment. "Mr McKeever, you have detention for the rest of the week, starting this afternoon. Mr Parker, while it was commendable that you stood up for Mr Leeds, you should have gone for a teacher. Take the rest of the day and tomorrow off to tend to your black eye. Mr McKeever, Ms Strange, thank you for your time."  
Principal Morita stood and it was clear this meeting was now over.

Peter and Emily exited the building and went to the alley that Emily had used to portal there in the first place. The whole time neither she nor Peter had spoken. However, when she opened the portal he did ask where they were heading.  
"Stark Industries," was Emily's reply.  
They stepped through the portal and towards a desk. This was a lesser known building for the company and Peter had never been there before. After a few minutes of small talk and signing papers, Emily was directing Peter to a small white VW.  
They both got in, and it wasn't until Emily had pulled out of the garage that Peter spoke again.  
"Where are we going?"  
"A SI research facility about a half hour from here."  
"Does Aunt May - "  
Emily interrupted before he could finish.  
"Aunt May knows about the thing at school and going to the facility. She said it's fine and she's proud of you for standing up for Ned."  
"She's not mad at me?" He looked hopeful.  
Emily sighed. "None of us are angry at you, Peter. If they were, we wouldn't be heading to the research facility and letting you work with the junior scientists."  
Peter's eyes lit up.  
"Oh, that'll be so cool!" Then he stopped. "But, if you're not angry, then why weren't you talking to me?"  
Emily ran a hand through her hair. "I was angry, Peter, just not at you. I was angry that you got hurt and that he was bullying Ned, and that he only got half a week's worth of detention. I was angry at the situation and I shouldn't have blocked you out. I'm sorry."  
"Oh, okay. Well, you probably handled the meeting better than May or Tony would have."  
Emily laughed. "True, and probably better than Stephen would have either."  
She turned onto the highway and gestured to the bag with her travel mug and the rolls. Peter retrieved the coffee and the rolls. Emily took one and pushed Peter's hand back towards him.  
"That's yours. There'll be more food when we get there, but hopefully that'll satisfy your metabolism for now."

They ate in silence for a while, the only sound being road noise and the random selection of songs that played in the car.  
"So, why are you driving and not portalling to the research facility?" Peter asked once he'd finished the last mouthful of food.  
"I'm taking a heap of reagents and equipment up with me. We were running out the other day," Emily replied, reaching for her coffee.  
"We?" Peter questioned, passing the mug across.  
"Yea. Before I become a sorcerer I walked as a lab scientist, mainly in pathology. When Tony found out, he asked if I'd join the medical research team."  
"Oh, cool. Did you work in a hospital or for a private company?"  
"In a hospital." Emily replied, looking dead ahead at the road. Peter was sure there was a little more to the story that she wasn't telling.  
"Oh, that'd be cool. Working with all those doctors and saving lives."  
Emily really wasn't sure if he was joking or not.  
"Which hospital did you work at?"  
And there was the question Emily was hoping to avoid. Shame they still had 20 minutes left of the drive. She decided to bite the bullet and just reply.  
"Metro – General hospital," she sighed, and out of the corner of her eye she watched as Peter made the connection. His eyes lit up  
"Wasn't that the hospital Doctor Strange worked at before his accident? Is that where you me?" Peter asked excitedly.  
"Yes, that's where he worked. But no, we met at Kamar Taj. I had only just started when Stephen had his accident. Plus, he was a neurosurgeon and I mostly worked with the ER and consulting room doctors. Kinda glad I didn't meet him then, he had a reputation of being an arrogant asshole."  
"You mean he's not one now?" Peter asked jokingly, eyes wide in comic innocence.  
"He's still arrogant," Emily laughed, "but he's only a bit of an asshole. Mostly to Tony."  
"Yea, 'cause Mr Stark gives as good as he gets."  
"Exactly."

They lapse into silence for a little bit before Peter spoke again.  
"That's coffee," he said, pointing to Emily's travel mug.  
"Yes."  
"You don't drink coffee."  
"Oh, trust me Peter, I really do. It's how I got through uni."  
"But you don't drink it at the sanctum. You all drink tea."  
"No, I don't really need to." Emily smiled a little.  
"So why now?"  
"Because science. And Tony."  
Peter nodded sagely. "That seems fair."  
A large building was looming into view in front of them.  
"Is that it?" Peter looked at the building curiously.  
"Yea, not as showy as most of Tony's buildings, is it?"  
"No, but it's still kinda classy." Peter commented. "$10 it was Miss Potts design."  
Emily laughed. "You and I both know that's the only sensible conclusion."  
As the car pulled up, Peter turned to Emily.  
"Thanks for picking me up and for listening to what happened."  
"You're welcome, Peter." Emily smiled. "Any time." 


End file.
